Hero Online

Hero Online is a 3D Fantasy MMORPG set in an oriental world. Chose from five unique character; each with different weapon specializations. Players make the first job change at level 10, the second at 50 and have plenty of opportunities to fight one another in this fast paced MMORPG.

Hero Online Overview

Hero Online has gained a large following since its 2006 release and continues to be popular today. The game is starting to show its age; there is no character customization (not even gender seelction), the graphics are mediocre at best, and the game world is rather dull and repetitive but Hero Online has one thing many flashier games lack; a community. So if you’re looking for something simple but with a lot of PvP potential this may be the game for you. There are five characters to chose from at the beginning but players won’t be able to pick a class until level 10. At level 50, players can choose from two second jobs per class. The characters and classes are:

Hero Online Screenshots

Hero Online Featured Video

Full Review

Hero Online Review

By Erhan Altay

Released back in July 2006 by Netgame, Hero Online was inspired by a series of famous Chinese novels. Like 9Dragons and Scions of Fate, Hero Online is set in an oriental fantasy world. Saddly, Hero Online is not the most in depth game but it has a large community with 10 channels, 2 of which are PvP specific. Find out more about Hero Online below.

Character Roulette

Character creation is one of Hero Online’s weakest points, there are five characters to chose from but they cannot be customized in any way. Three of the characters are female while the other two are male. Each is proficient in three weapons and starts with a basic version of each type. The character models are surprisingly well done compared to the rest of the game’s graphics. It’s not made very at the start but the five characters act as races, not classes. You won’t be able to pick a class until level 10, or ’1Dan’ as it’s called. Hero Online takes a strange approach to labeling its levels, just like 9Dragons. Players start out as 1Kyu and level up normally up until 9Kyu. The next time they level up, they advance to ’1Dan.’ My understanding is ‘dan’ counts as ten so 5Dan would be level 50, which is when players make the second job advancement. For more details on all the characters and classes, please see the overview.

Welcome, Young Grasshopper

New players start their adventure in a town called Dragon Castle but there is no tutorial or starting quest to worry about. The game’s controls are standard MMORPG point-and-click where the mouse handles movement, combat, and the interface. Keyboard shortcuts are available but there is no keyboard movement option. The best way to proceed is to head outside town and start killing the local wildlife; wolves and boars. The game has sub standard graphics but most are the character models still look impressive. I did encounter several glitches — as I walked under an arched gate, my character wound up on top of it. Similarly, I fell through the ground several times.

Crazy Kung Fu Moves

As you start hunting, you’ll notice Hero Online has some pretty crazy attack animations. My Majestic Muse (or belly dancer as I call her) was doing back flips and spins as she shred through that poor wolf pup. For some reason the screen seems to shake every time you attack which I found distracting but I couldn’t tell if the game was designed this way or if it was a bug. In any case, grinding gets boring after the first few levels. Maps are filled with huge over spawns of the same 3-4 monster types and since the entire game world is a mere 17 maps, there are very few different enemy models to beat on. I remember working my way up a hill and having my entire screen filled with what looked like hundreds of boars walking around aimlessly.

Training for Battle

Each level, players are rewarded with 4 stat points to distribute among 3 stats; Str, Dex and Int. Skill points are gained independently from levels and players can track their progress in a separate menu. Generally, these are gained slowly which means players won’t have any skills for the first few levels which adds to the monotony of the gameplay. Even the skill points you do gather cannot be put to use until level 10 when the first skill becomes available. Skills are categorized by weapon type and gender so for example ‘male sword’ skills are different than ‘female sword’ skills.

Come into My House

Starting at 4dan (level 40) players can create their own House which is Hero Online’s phrase for guild. Houses are faction specific so a player who belongs to the Zhuang faction won’t be able to join a house created by a Shao players and vice versa. Houses can create special emblems that appear next to member’s names and can earn special titles depending on the activity of its members.

Four Ways to Fight

PvP in Hero Online is multi faceted. Besides challenging each other to duels there are specific PvP maps (all maps on PvP channels.) There are three unique PvP maps; a capture the flag map, a mining map where players fight for the chance to collect rare resources and a special faction war map which is only available twice a week. The game’s level cap is 100 and while there isn’t a requirement to participate in PvP, lower levels players have a much harder time.

Shopping for Pets

All players can open and buy from personal shops starting at level 10 but only Hunters can tame pets. Everyone else must purchase them. Pets come in various forms, some like the large tigers are best used as mounts while others help the player in combat. There are in total 5 types of pets; wolves, horses, bears, hawks and tigers. All pets grow and get stronger but have different level requires ranging from 10-50.

Crafting & Upgrading

Equipment drops fairly often from monsters but most if it cannot be used by an individual player, it might be for the wrong gender, class, or wrong weapon type. Luckily, these unwanted items can be dismantled by an NPC. Dismantling in this manner extracts special stones from equipment that can then be used to upgrade useful gear. Both upgrading and extracting don’t have guaranteed success rates so be careful. A simple crafting system is also in place where players gather certain materials and items, bring them to the blacksmith and have special gear forged for you. There are currently around 80 different craftable items including all gear and accessories.

Final Verdict: Fair

Hero Online is a dated game with limited features but its simplicity may be the reason why it has managed to draw so many gamers. If you’ve tried other Asian themed MMORPGs but haven’t liked them, maybe this is the one for you. Those looking for something more original or recent, look elsewhere.